AT&T announced on Thursday that Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich has begun to roll out to the HTC Vivid. The Android 4.0 update also includes Sense 3.6, and it brings the company’s Beats Audio technology to the 4G LTE handset as well. The Ice Cream Sandwich update will deliver advanced voice and text input to the device, along with Face Unlock, UI improvements and improved email. The HTC Vivid is equipped with a 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, microSDHC support to add an additional 32GB of storage and a 1,620 mAh battery. AT&T’s press release follows below. More →

Last May, HTC’s chief executive officer Peter Chou responded to customer feedback and announced that the company would no longer be locking the bootloaders on its devices. HTC later introduced the web-based HTCDev unlocking tool, giving users a simple and safe way to unlock their devices. The solution was not perfect though, and phones such as the HTC Vivid and HTC Rezound were released with locked bootloaders and users had no method to unlock them. HTC has made good on its promise once again, however, and the company’s developer site has now been updated with the following message:

All HTC Android devices launched after September 2011 are unlockable. The website will be updated accordingly to reflect this in the coming weeks. We continue to work on models launched prior to September 2011, please check back often for the status of older devices.

Anyone interested in customizing their HTC device should visit the source link after the break. More →

AT&T’s first two 4G LTE-enabled smartphones are now available for purchase, and subscribers looking to be among the first to own these powerful new Android devices are in for a pleasant surprise. Announced just last week, the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket and HTC Vivid feature Google’s Android Gingerbread OS and specs that place them on par with most modern high-end handsets. They were also announced with high-end price points; the Vivid was unveiled at $199.99 and the Skyrocket was given a $249.99 price tag. Both phones are now on sale as promised — they became available a day early on Saturday, in fact — but each smartphone is priced $100 lower than expected on AT&T’s website. Read on for more. More →

AT&T’s first two LTE-enabled smartphones were unveiled earlier this week and they’re certainly strong handsets on paper, but we had a chance to put these smartphones through the paces earlier this afternoon to see how they perform in the real world. The first device we checked out was HTC’s Vivid, a supersized Gingerbread phone with a unique look and feel. The Vivid is definitely the more solid of the two phones in terms of build, but we weren’t big fans of the glossy plastic around the sides of the back of the phone. HTC has used a lot of soft-touch rubber feel materials or aluminum on their recent smartphones, and the difference is noticeable. Performance was as expected in light of the phone’s 1.2GHz dual-core chipset. Navigation around the Sense UI was snappy and the phone was very responsive. Sadly, we were in New York City without AT&T 4G LTE coverage so we weren’t able to test the phone on AT&T’s new 4G LTE network. We’re working on our full review of the HTC Vivid but in the meantime, check out our hands-on photos in the gallery below. AT&T will launch the HTC Vivid on November 6th for $199.99 on contract.